This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

'Sight the head and throw the stone' is a scarey but straight translation of the above dictum! It is a colloquial expression to say that the griddle should be set on the stove only when some one is ready to savour the dosae.

The batter should be mixed as and when required to get a crisp and delicious dosae.

INGREDIENTS

Ragi flour - 2 cups

Rice flour - 2 tbsps

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Finely chopped onions - 1/4 cup

Finely chopped green chillies - 1 tsp

Finely chopped fresh ginger - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Fresh coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Chopped Curry leaves- 1/2 tsp

Oil - for cooking

METHOD

1. Mix all the above ingredients with 2 cups of water to make the dosae batter. Add enough water to get the consistency of milk.

2. Grease the tava with 1/2 a tsp of oil and heat it.

3. Pour one tsp of batter on the tava to test the heat. The dosaes will come out very well once one or two dosaes are done and when the heat of the tava has reached the right temperature.

4. Take a ladle full of the batter and splash it on the hot tava with a swirling motion. Pour the thin batter in such a way that large gaps are formed in the dosae.

5. Pour more batter little by little to fill the larger holes.

6. Dribble 1/2 tsp of oil all over the dosae and around the dosae.

' MAKING OF THE DOSAE ' VIDEO RECORDED BY MY ENTHUSIASTIC NIECE.

7. The sides of the dosae will start curling upwards once it is cooked. Cook on the flip side for half a minute if you want to.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

This is a lip smacking dish from CHIDAMBARAM - one of the great temple towns in Tamil Nadu. Gotsu is a side dish to go with the Pongal and Samba Saadam which are offered to Lord Nataraja.

My sister - in - law is from Chidambaram and I learnt to prepare the traditional kattarikai gotsu from her. She was very particular about using sesame oil in its preparation.

INGREDIENTS

The Chidambaram Kattarikai is seedless and is the size of ones fist. The colour is deep purple all over. Bigger eggplants can also be used and the quantity of the ingredients can be adjusted accordingly. I have used the ones which were available here.

Eggplants - 4

Tamarind - the size of a gooseberry

Salt - 1 1/2 tsp

Jaggery ( crushed ) - 1/4 tsp

FOR THE SPICE POWDER

Coriander seeds - 2 tbsps

Bengal gram dal - 2 tbsps

Red chillies - 8

asafoetida - a small piece / 1 pinch

Cumin seeds - 1 /2 tsp

Back pepper - 1/4 tsp

Feureek seeds - 1/4 tsp

FOR SEASONING

Sesame oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

METHOD

1. Wash and wipe the eggplants thoroughly.

2. Rub the eggplants all over with a drop of sesame oil.

3. Grill the oiled eggplants one by one, directly placing them on a gas burner. Keep turning the eggplant till all the sides of the vegetable are done. The flavour is unique when grilled on direct fire.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Preparing vazhaikai podi is as easy as eating a ripe banana! Raw banana cooks very fast and once you keep the 'podi' ( powder ) handy, a delicious vazhaikai podi can be dished out in no time. There are various recipes using different ingredients for preparing the podi, but I love my mother's podi the best.

INGREDIENTS

Raw bananas - 2 ( medium size )

Tur dal - 4 tbsps

Red chillies - 6

Asafoetida - one small piece

Salt - 1 1/2 tsps

sesame oil - 2 tsps

Mustard seeds -1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

METHOD

1. Wash and cut the raw bananas across into 2 inch thick pieces.

2. Add enough water just to cover the cut vegetable and cook till tender.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

I had a young friendly neighbour who visited her native place quite often. The newly married girl always brought back various yummy goodies when she returned from her mother's place. My family loved the halasina happalas ( jack fruit crispies ) and the kashaayada pudi ( a pleasant smelling powder of mixed spices used in brewing a milk based beverage ) which she generously shared with us.

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.